Tag Archives: we may be eating eagles for thanksgiving

“It is so hard to leave—until you leave. And then it is the easiest goddamned thing in the world.”

―

John Green

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Ok.

This is actually a business post … well … a thought piece about how an individual gains their own business acumen and belief system.

Let’s assume you come from a working family. Your mom and dad worked. Maybe one of them was in a managerial position. If that is how you grew up you watched and gained some business beliefs from them. Their successes often dictate how we view gaining success.

And then … well … you grow up. You gain your own business experience and there comes a time when your own experience permits you to view your parent’s experience & views.

I would suggest that this is actually the third phase in the parent/child dynamic in Life.

The first?

There is the point in time when all of a sudden you realize your parents are human. That isn’t business … that is Life.

I wrote about this in a post called ‘the slippery slope of embellishment’ in which good parents, with good hearts and good intentions get trapped on the slippery slope. If parents are not very very careful they can step onto this slope early on in their children’s lives and if they are not careful to nip the embellishment in the bud at a key point that little nugget of ‘not exactly truth’ has become a seed that will grow in their child’s minds to become the ‘super human’ aspect of a child viewing their parents.

It is natural and there almost always comes a time when we face up to the fact most parents do the best they can but didn’t always get it right or even live their own lives quite right.

The second.

Then there are our 20’s when most of us stumble our way through the career gauntlet gaining some business experience … good & bad … where most of the time we think we know more than our bosses and everyone else only to be continuously proven that is not actually so.

For the most part this is a separation from parent influence as you just have to deal with most shit on your own with some key interactions <at most> for guidance.

The third?

Then there comes a time … usually in early to mid 30’s … where your experience kicks in and if you are rising in business leadership you start understanding your own style, acumen and belief system.

Let’s just say that this is the time when you have worked your way through most of what business demands of you and you have decided how you want to deal with it, manage it and get what you want out of it.

This almost always forces a family choice. This is because your decided path, or how you may walk on that path, may not be exactly what your parent’s is.

Sometimes you can quietly ignore it and figure out a way to walk in the gray and then there sometimes comes a point in which Life places a spotlight on the choice – embrace your mother or father’s view or your own.

This is the moment when you are an adult and for some reason the spotlight of Life forces you to view the flaws of your parents, or either your father or mother, and you are faced with the fact they had some hollowness you had chosen to overlook or maybe you actually realize that while they brought you up, with their best intentions, to believe Life should be lived a certain way … you have come to believe Life should be faced a different way.

This is the moment you have a family choice to make.

If you have half a brain you have been dancing around the issue for a while. Embracing some aspects just to keep them happy, embracing some others because … well … they had got you where you are today … and ignoring some others simply because you think they are stupid, old fashioned or just plain wrong.

But then you get faced, and forced, with the choice.

You get forced mostly because all of a sudden you become representative of someone else’s business beliefs and acumen. You become an agent of what they believe and do … whether you actually believe it or do it.

Well.

A couple things can happen and I would suggest they are mostly sequential.

The first is you, as an experienced 30something, try to influence your parents’ behavior and beliefs. You attempt to pick away at what you construe as some of the more heinous aspects to get them closer to your acumen.

You do this almost always under the guise of “times have changed and this is more likely to work.” Sometimes this works … more often it does not.

But you gotta try.

The difficulty is you will not win all of them and you end up either focusing on the ‘wins’ while blinding yourself from the ‘sins’ or you get some ‘wins’ on the less meaningful things and still get slimed by the more meaningful ‘sins.’

The second is you, as an experienced 30something, try to distance yourself from the parent’s behavior & beliefs.

The difficulty here is that distance in distancing is almost always the key. Proximity screws you. Especially if you go your own way, pave your one pathway … and it ends up too near your parent’s path.

And to be sure … all of this gets cloaked in your personal relationship with the parent. It gets cloaked in family ties & ‘blood’, maybe some guilt in that you know they had best intentions, possibly feel some debt in that you know they helped you get t where you are today and then finally do you have a close personal relationship or not.

All of these things sound, in typing, as easy things to assess and decide upon … uhm … but it is family. It is a parent. It is the one “who brung you to the party.”

Well.

Let me clarify that last thought.

I would suggest most people reach their 30’s having taken one of two paths with regard to family:

You got to where you were by following what you had been taught and tied to your parent’s business ideology, acumen and beliefs.

You got to where you were by rebelling against everything your parents had stood for, believed and ideology.

Regardless of how you got there I could argue that your parent ‘brung you to the party’ either by showing you the way or shoving you away. Therefore when decision time arrives you gotta face who brought you to the party.

It ain’t easy.

Because my father passed away before I hit my business stride I never had to deal with it … but I know I would have.

I cannot envision how difficult it would be to say “no, that is not right.”

Or.

“no, I want to do it this way.”

Or.

“no, you shouldn’t do that.”

It is the family choice.

But maybe it is more about what is right or wrong for ‘self.’ And that is the choice … because family will have wandered down the business path of Life having defined right & wrong in a certain way … and, yet, you, individually, have crafted a business path with a slightly different right & wrong.

The semantics between the two become real – especially if it all takes place publicly.

Interestingly I thought about this after I wrote my ‘in this time, at this place, I will be defined’ post. In this time, and in this place, I believe more 30somethings are being forced to take a stand … and often versus their father, mother or older generation.

I call it a family choice.

And I imagine it is a hard choice.

And I imagine I can really only say one last thing … the future resides in the hands, hearts & minds of the 30somethings. They should make a stand for what they believe is right, or wrong, even if it forces a family choice.

Art for me is not an end in itself, but a means of evoking that mystery. ”

—

René Magritte on putting seemingly unrelated objects together in art

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jux·ta·po·si·tion

noun

the fact of two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effect.

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Thanksgiving often represents the ultimate juxtaposition.

A time and place in which generations intersect.

The ones intermittently stepping with both uncertainty and moments of certain confidence … growing into who they will be.

The ones intermittently standing in a space of satisfaction and moments of dissatisfaction … who grapple with who they are <and what they have done and have not done>.

The ones intermittently looking at how things have changed, for good and bad, who desperately hold on to who and what everyone was … while every bone in their body wants to see how it will be better for those around them despite how much has changed.

Thanksgiving is fraught with juxtapositions.

And we wonder why there is often conflict?

Thanksgiving often forces us to view the past, present and future in one forced viewing. And not only that but instead of the more common sit back and introspectively view your own intersection of past, present & future this one is more often done in a collaboration & consensus event where all participants weigh in and offer some thoughts on. And the participants aren’t typically some random people pulled of the street or employees in some department you only see in the break room … these participants are representative of what truly happened in your past, are most likely semi involved in your present and , whether you like it or not, are places you will visit again in your future.

The juxtaposition of what is in your own mind and what is in others minds shifts the intangible to tangible as real as the turkey being served on a plate to everyone.

I often do think that Thanksgiving is art coming to Life.

We picture the picture.

We choose the palette of colors to use.

We all place a brush on the canvas.

And, in the end, we gaze at the end product … each seeing it through our own lens of what Life means to us and what we mean to Life.

Juxtapositions can be difficult.

Difficult to … well … like … or maybe to embrace easily.

Difficult to easily see how the good and bad embody … well … good shit.

Difficult to see a reality that matches … well … the reality we had in our head before we were forced to encounter this juxtaposition.

Regardless.

I have one word for you today, on this thanksgiving, as we ponder this day in which we are faced with juxtaposition … “neighboring.”

In the Modern Guide of Synonyms juxtaposition does not have its own heading.

It can only be found under “neighboring.”

Juxtaposing can be found only side by side with adjacent, adjoining, contiguous and neighboring.

Far too often we, I included, separate past, present and future … “live in the moment” … “learn from the past” … “the future is now.”

All that shit.

Last year on Thanksgiving I suggested it is the functional dysfunctional being served as a good tasting dish on the day. That on Thanksgiving all of that typically comes together and eats together. But I also suggested … “all I know is that my family is my family and my childhood was my childhood and my future is my future.”

And that the functionally dysfunctional in all aspects, and all the aspects, helped craft the man, the person, I am today. I imagine I am not that different in that aspect from anyone else.

I was a victim of it all without becoming a victim of the experience. Just as I will be a victim of the future without becoming a victim ofthe experience.

Anyway.

Past, present and future are neighbors. We see each other every day and say good morning even when grumpy and not awake and talk about what is happening with our kids and lives over the fence in between chores. And these neighbors paint the canvas of our lives. Yeah. Sometimes we don’t always like what we see but sometimes it all comes together just right.

Thanksgiving, while a forced juxtaposition in which we are forced to sit and face past, present & future, is a gathering of neighboring thoughts, adjacent thoughts, adjoining thoughts and contiguous thoughts.

And that, my friends, is what art is.

A gathering of all those thoughts.

A creation borne of the mystery of the world … and our world.

Ponder that this thanksgiving wherever you are and whoever you are with.

according to some etymologists, was an acronym for “oll korrect” <slang for “all correct”>.

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I thought on Thanksgiving, a day when families typically gather, it would be a good day to discuss dysfunction.

In a way functionally dysfunctional is actually one of the Life absolutes.

This becomes important because I imagine beyond moral imperatives Life absolutes are few and far between.

What I do know is that if you google Life absolutes you get overwhelmed with ‘life help lists’ of “5 truths of Life” … ‘absolutes of womanhood’ … ‘absolutes of family’ … but none of the absolutes seem to recognize the functional dysfunctionality of Life.

Lets face it … we are all victims of some dysfunctional aspects of Life, family or something. To suggest that anyone’s life, or family, doesn’t and didn’t contain some dysfunctionality is kinda silly <if not honest>.

And this means everyone.

Haves. Have nots. Seemingly well adjusted families and people. Seemingly non well adjusted families and people.

We all have encountered good and we all have encountered bad. I am not suggesting the life balance sheet is evenly balanced between good and bad … just that we have encountered some on both sides. I would argue the dysfunctional aspects are neither good nor bad. They are simply dysfunctional things we either navigate, or do not navigate, in our attempt to become functional human beings.

As for not navigating <or not accepting the responsibility to navigate>?

I admit.

I don’t fit in with, nor do I understand <in a way> what is called the ‘victim mentality’ which seems to pervade society today. We seem to labor under this burden of having been victim to some dysfunction which either <a> is an excuse for our own seeming quasi-debilitating dysfunction or <b> suggests that we have overcome some extraordinary thing which makes our ‘being functional’ more heroic in some way.

I personally don’t need any excuses nor do I need to try and make whatever I have made of my life look better by suggesting my ‘better’ occurred despite some obstacles or ‘odds against me.’

Some call this personal responsibility.

And I imagine I could but instead I simply suggest that all of us decide to be functional within, or despite, what is normally some dysfunctional family & life aspects.

The whole idea that someone commits a crime or some ‘lesser than desirable behavior’ which is a portrayal of some lack of moral fortitude because … well … we cannot really blame them because they had a rough or less than perfect childhood or came from a dysfunctional family environment is … uhm … generally speaking … an excuse.

Ok.

In general … let me suggest it is bullshit.

Everybody had a tough childhood.

I could argue that being a child is tough by definition.

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Everyone is bigger than you, older than you, smarter than you … and can tell you what to do. and while parents who are abusive, mean drunks, & addicts are fortunately not in the majority pretty much 50% of marriages end in divorce … and of the other 50% … let’s say about 90% of those sputter along on 2 cylinders most of the time. so when I hear people moaning or making excuses about a dysfunctional childhood & family … I am tempted to challenge them to show me a truly functional childhood. A real one and not one idealistic concept from a TV show.

—

<lost source but loved he words>

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And part of being a kid is being part of a family <or typically some cohort of adults>.

Adults typically defined by two things with regard to our childhoods:

– Good intentions for the child <making decisions based on the best future interest of the child>

– Flawed behavior and decisions made with good intentions

That is the weird thing about our families and what creates most of the dysfunctional functional aspects. Parents and families represent the worst of the worst and the best of the best.

Families can represent the most fucked up aspects of Life which if you reflect upon them too much could represent all the excuses anyone could ever need for a fucked up life and adulthood. But families also represent the most hopeful aspects of Life if you reflect upon actually represent all the good one would ever want to find in Life.

And on thanksgiving all of that typically comes together and eats together.
All I know is that my family is my family and my childhood was my childhood and my future is my future.

Functionally dysfunctional in all aspects and all the aspects helped craft the man, the person, I am today.

I was a victim of it all without becoming a victim of the experience.

I do know that growing up sports was pretty much all I thought about. I played as much as I could anywhere at any time <yea … I was one of those kids who shoveled snow off the courts to play basketball and played baseball at 2 in the afternoon on 100degree + days>.

I studied the games, studied the athletes and knew its history. As a tween I threw a ball against a wall for hours on end pitching and fielding games of future glory.

And that was within a family in which sports was code for ‘leisure and nonproductive activity.’

If I wasn’t doing some activity that ‘bettered me’ <boy scouts, internships, actual labor, education & learning acquisition> I wasn’t being functionally productive. That was our family dysfunction driver. I could shake my head in despair … and I have had people actually shake my their heads in seeming shock <because I turned out to be a decent athlete but not even close to professional> and in the way that good dysfunctional bubbles to the top … I have oddly even found myself defending my family drive. And I could do so because … well … the dysfunction was driven with good intentions.
I am not a psychologist but I assume that sports was more than just a boyhood passion … it was also either a means of escape or rebellion against the functional dysfunction of family.

Family life, dominated by my brilliant father, was highly, often relentlessly intellectual. I have never spoken with my sister about growing up but I tend to believe we some pressure to display copious brainpower at all times. While I was always a voracious reader <of everything> I gravitated towards sports.

This only exacerbated the functional dysfunction.

Doing what came naturally to me made me feel a second rate citizen in the family. To be clear … not necessarily a failure just an outlier or an oddball. The thing I loved, and was okay at, became a badge of our dysfunctionality … and in parallel … our functionality.

I never wanted to turn myself into someone different. I never wanted to be the intellectual brilliant parents I had and I never wanted to be the more serious and hard-edged focused person I think the functional best interest aspects of my family wanted me to be.

I always kind of knew <albeit I couldn’t articulate> that someone can’t unmake who we are and I tend to believe within all the dysfunctional functional aspects of our family everyone just wanted me to be successful being me … it is just their path looked different than what I envisioned my path to be. .

I can honestly say at the time it was miserable and confusing. But I can also honestly say it was miserable and confusing for all parts & pieces of eth family … not just me.

I shared some personal stuff to make a point.

All families are dysfunctional. And yet still mostly functional. It is a herky jerky Life within a family with moments of smoothness.

I made mistakes that contributed to dysfunctionality. The family made mistakes that contributed to the dysfunctionality.

We would like to believe our parents, and the family, have all the right answers and do all the right things … but family, and Life, just doesn’t work that way.

In fact.

If most of us could get their ‘victim’ head out of their asses it would become a little more obvious that the dysfunction contributed to the functional aspects of who and what we are today.

Childhood has a tendency to magnify the small things. Shit. Childhood has a tendency to super magnify the dysfunctional things.

All of this leads me back to one of my ‘quotes’ at the top of the post.

Okay.

“Okay,” according to some etymologists, was an acronym for “oll korrect” (which is slang for “all correct”).

Coming from a dysfunctional functional family has taught me many valuable lessons.

Maybe the most important is that despite any dysfunction, if you do not accept being a victim, “it’s going to be okay.”

Part of being in a family is having to shares loss, pain and heartache … as well as moments of joy, sharing and good intentions. Our experiences taint what we would have liked to be childhood bliss but at the same time this mixture of functional dysfunction teaches us that Life rarely turns out perfect, most of the time things, and you, are not magnificent and that … well … it is all going to be okay. In fact … I believe I could make the point that all the dysfunction is simply being part of an ‘all correct’ Life.

Life has never been perfect and never will be. Heck. Growing up is never perfect and will never be.

And while we may look back at the dysfunctional aspects and wish it could have been different … you cannot go back and revise what happened. Therefore you really only have one choice … accept you are a victim of it all without becoming a victim of the experience or become a victim of the dysfunction.

Anyone and everyone can find flaws or something insufficient in us. That is simply being human.

But blaming your circumstances on others <parents, childhood, God, fate> and not yourself?

C’mon.

Dysfunctionality begets functionality. That’s kinda Life’s gig.

Life has not betrayed you. No one has betrayed you. Only you can betray you on this particular topic. You have to pretty much embrace your dysfunction, and dysfunctional family aspects, on your terms and move forward.

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“If your success is not on your own terms, if it looks good to the world but does not feel good in your heart, it is not success at all.”

Not My Family

—

Anna Quindlen

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So, on Thanksgiving, recognize that Life is functionally dysfunctional and that pretty much everyone has had a dysfunctional Life, childhood and family experience.

And despite it all … most of us are pretty functional.

And we are because we figure out how to accept, if not embrace, the flawed dysfunctional functional people we are as individuals … and the individuals in our families. We figure out that despite all the dysfunction … it is all going to be okay if we believe it will be okay.

This casual sports bar has made a tradition of serving up crispy, deep-fried turkey testicles during the holiday season. The meaty nuggets are ordered by the bucket and are accompanied by ranch, barbecue or buffalo dipping sauce. The balls have become so beloved that the bar holds an annual Black Wednesday (that’s the day-before-Thanksgiving) turkey testicle-eating contest where the winner takes home a frozen turkey.

—–

Sigh.

Only Americans could create a bucket of balls for a Thanksgiving tradition.

It is part of our youthful charm.

Anyway.

The first Thanksgiving was more like five deer and some birds, a shitload of shellfish, twigs, acorns and well … no pie.

In fact … the feast the Wampanoag Indians and Pilgrims ate in 1621 was … well … ducks, maybe a swan <gulp>, shellfish <thin clams or mussels>, nuts <anything they could mash>, no sugar <so no stuffing or cranberries or … well … pie>.
We know the colonists regularly consumed ducks, geese and swans. And, instead of bread-based stuffing, herbs & onions or nuts might have been added to the birds for extra flavor.

Turkey or no turkey, the first Thanksgiving’s attendees almost certainly got their fill of meat.

Fairly bland but at least the Pilgrims & Indians weren’t killing each other <like many families do on Thanksgiving … I note that so no one thinks killing each other around the Thanksgiving table is actually a tradition>.

Anyway.

I cooked a turducken this year … as I have the past three years.

It is this fabulous creation of layered turkey, duck and chicken with a spicy stuffing mix.

It is an exorbitant excessive culinary delight.

And as I gazed at it I thought of all the years in the past as I lived a nomad life away from any family, my own or anyone’s, and I think of the solo trips to islands and far off countries and … well … luxuries many people have never had the opportunity to enjoy.

At that time … I never thought anything about the ‘luxury’ or any sense of extravagance.

At that time … in my mind.

I deserved the break.

I say this gazing at my turducken when I know people in other countries … shit … in cities in my own country … will never know this luxury adorning my dining room table.

Am I altruistic?

Shit no.

I tend to believe I am simply gaining some perspective on what I used to consider … well … I deserved. And it makes me reflect upon people and how they think about ‘what I deserve.’

And as I begin discussing ‘what I deserve’ I will hearken back to the original Thanksgivings and the fact the original pilgrims were … well … not called pilgrims.

—

“Those who were members of the Separatist Church Movement referred to themselves as ‘Saints.’

About 60 others who came over in the Mayflower with them were called ‘Strangers.’

But they all knew how to have fun and enjoy life. They made and drank a lot of beer, hard cider and something like today’s brandy. Occasionally there was drunkenness and fighting.”

—

So.

The original thanksgiving was a celebration for the harvest … for work.

It was not indulgence … it was not extravagance … it was a celebration of real output <not income>.

I would suggest it was an understanding of balance. And an understanding of the Life value proposition – work & what I deserve.

Look.

That is a hard thing to understand.

It seems like it should be easy … but it is not.

—

“The hardest choice in life is usually between what you want, and what you deserve.”

=

Rashida Rowe

—

Society makes it tough.
The Pilgrims were a small tight knit group of people with similar attitudes honed by similar hardships. They had a common interest in success and outcome from hard work.

All those things make it easier to not only understand the balance but share the balance.

Today?
Today it is difficult.

Society makes it difficult.

Society has a nasty tendency to complicate our understanding the ‘deserve’ balance.

Everywhere you turn there is the message screaming at us that we need to give ourselves a break and have a treat:

==

Girlfriend, put your feet up and enjoy a mani-pedi.

You deserve it!

<note: …. always with an exclamation point>

–

Hey mom! Following an afternoon with your crazy kids, you deserve a stop at the mall to treat yourself to new shoes or that designer handbag or, well, whatever you want!

<note: …. always with an exclamation point>

–

Life got you down? Retail therapy! You deserve it.

<note: …. always with an exclamation point>

–

==

Ok.

While I focused on women <because there is an inherent underlying theme that women are being too hard on themselves — juggling the duties of being mothers, wives, professionals — all at once> the fact is that all of us are encouraged, because we demand too much of ourselves, to ‘stop punishing ourselves’ and go out and indulge ourselves in some way as therapy.

Ok.

First.

I am all for breaks.

But in the good ole days … Thanksgiving was but one indulgent break from 365 day toil. That is a well deserved break.

In comparison. Today?

Weekly pampering?

Monthly reward for work well done?

Daily indulgence of something to break the day up?

Where is the number?

What is the number?

How much do we truly need and doesn’t more of it actually:

–

<a> make us expect more (answer: yes), and

<b> create the impression we are sacrificing more in our everyday toil (answer: yes).

–

Secondly.

Uhm.

Instead of “punishing ourselves” by plowing through life we reward ourselves with making purchases that sit on a credit card <called ‘debt’> or spend money on some intangible indulgence which depletes four wallet size <and savings size> which could be used to actually accumulate something that could actually bring us closer to whatever our vision is.

Look.

Before everyone gets defensive about how many indulgences are required to get you through the week, consider the source of your belief that you need some indulgent break every week.

Were you really raised to believe some continuous indulgence <under the guise of ‘reward’> is a basic part of human life?

Or was the idea planted by some marketing genius promoting therapeutic benefits of whatever indulgent behavior they want to sell you?

We all should use every opportunity to better ourselves. And this includes thinking about what we truly deserve.

But what we deserve is, and should always be, balanced by our understanding of ‘effort.’ And effort should be all about making every minute count.

Let me be clear.

I love the American ambitious ‘you can do anything’ culture.

And I dislike it at exactly the same time.

Why?

Because it is a constant struggle.

All of us get tugged by ambition and at exactly the same time get tugged by fairness.

No.

I am not suggesting you cannot have and do both.

Yes.

I am suggesting it gets tough to balance.

One is driven by individualism <what I deserve and I want a good happy Life>.

One is driven by collectivism … or some version of pluralism <I would like everyone around me to live a good happy Life>.

It is natural to focus and put a heavier emphasis on the “I” portion … especially at first … because you typically have nothing <or little> and you believe you need ‘something’ before you start worrying about fairness or general Life happiness of others.

The true struggle occurs once you … well … have.

You have invested the effort, you have worked and focused and did … and all of a sudden you have entered into the “I deserve” mentality <zone>.

That is actually a byproduct of ambition.

Ambition, in and of itself, is not a bad thing. Unfortunately it brings some baggage along with it. It’s almost like you go on this trip without any bags … and when you get off the train you have a bag you carry off.

The bag is a metaphor for tangible shit you have accumulated <which reflects your effort in your eyes as well as the eyes of those who look> but it also contains mental shit. Self value, self-actualization and self-esteem. And it is the mental aspect which builds up the ‘deserve equation.’

We almost consider it as an aspect of winning … as in ‘winning in Life.’
I played the game.

I put in the effort.

I deserve the trophy.

And maybe that is where we get it wrong <sometimes>.

Playing the game versus winning.

Life, in general, is not measured by how many wins you have <or awards you get> it is about how you play the game.

It really shouldn’t be about “winning in Life” it really should be “Life played well.”

Unfortunately … that is not part of the USA DNA.

We are an ambitious group of people who like to have, and measure, progress.

We are a group of people where ambition is not a negative word … it is indicative of a positive spirit. It is indicative of an underlying competitiveness … which resides in the souls of 99% of Americans. I am not suggesting it is the only characteristic within us … just that it is always there and always suggesting ‘keep going.’

—

“The problem in France is that ambition is not a compliment.

It’s almost a bad word. ‘Ha, look, he’s ambitious.’

So that’s a very difficult situation for an athlete: As soon as you try to be ambitious you have people mocking you.

For instance, we would never have made the war in Iraq.

On the other hand, we may never win anything.”

=

Bouin

—

This is not about slamming USA.

This is not an indictment of our ‘can do’ spirit or an indictment of ambition.

This is simply a reflective moment on how we think about what we deserve on Thanksgiving.

We deserve more than a ‘bucket of balls’ on Thanksgiving.

We deserve a sense of success for effort. Not anything truly tangible … but a sense.

We deserve a good sense and a good feeling for playing the game with effort.

If we figure that out I tend to believe all the rest will simply fall in place.

No matter how you may look over your past year … inevitably you find things to give thanks for.

But I am going to look into the “way-back” machine to find what to be thankful for this year.Like maybe 1776 or so.

If cooler heads had not prevailed early in the beginnings of the creation of the good ole US of A … we may be eating eagles for thanksgiving.

Why?

Because if it had been up to Benjamin Franklin the turkey would have been the national bird instead of the bald eagle.

Which would have then <of course> made a turkey a protected species <therefore uneatable because unkillable> and … well … I imagine we would be eating eagles on thanksgiving <okay … maybe not … but it made for a fun thought>.

So.

This Thanksgiving I would like to give my thanks to whomever we should thank for getting Ben to focus on something other than turkeys as a national bird.

In case you didn’t know about this the National Wildlife website was kind enough to have actually written something about this in 2007 so I will share their words:

Nations often adopt animals as symbols: England has its lion, India its peacock. On the afternoon of July 4, 1776, just after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the Continental Congress appointed a committee made up of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin to select a design for an official national seal.

The three patriots had different ideas and none of them included the bald eagle. They finally agreed on a drawing of the woman Liberty holding a shield to represent the states. But the members of Congress weren’t inspired by the design and they consulted with William Barton, a Philadelphia artist who produced a new design that included a golden eagle.

Because the golden eagle also flew over European nations, however, the federal lawmakers specified that the bird in the seal should be an American bald eagle. On June 20, 1782, they approved the design that we recognize today.

At the time, the new nation was still at war with England, and the fierce-looking bird seemed to be an appropriate emblem. But from the start, the eagle was a controversial choice. Franklin scowled at it. “For my part,” he declared, “I wish the eagle had not been chosen as the representative of this country. He is a bird of bad moral character; he does not get his living honestly. You may have seen him perched in some dead tree where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the labor of the fishing hawk and, when that diligent bird has at length taken a fish and is bearing it to his nest for his young ones, the bald eagle pursues him and takes the fish. With all this injustice, he is never in good case.”

Some people have since questioned whether the eagle would have been chosen to adorn the seal had the nation not been at war. A year after the Treaty of Paris ended the conflict with Great Britain, Franklin argued that the turkey would have been a more appropriate symbol. “A much more respectable bird and a true native of America,” he pointed out. Franklin conceded that the turkey was “a little vain and silly,” but maintained that it was nevertheless a “bird of courage” that “would not hesitate to attack a grenadier of the British guards who should presume to invade his farm yard with a red coat on.”

In addition.

In a letter to his daughter Franklin was not particularly nice with regard to our bald eagle:

Franklin’s Letter to His Daughter (excerpt)

“With all this Injustice, he is never in good Case but like those among Men who live by Sharping & Robbing he is generally poor and often very lousy. Besides he is a rank Coward: The little King Bird not bigger than a Sparrow attacks him boldly and drives him out of the District. He is therefore by no means a proper Emblem for the brave and honest Cincinnati of America who have driven all the King birds from our Country…

By the way.

Three other types of birds were suggested in the preliminary United States Great Seal designs:

– a rooster

– a dove

– a phoenix in flames

Also. An imperial two-headed eagle <not unlike the pre-soviet Russia emblem> was in the initial discussion..

Oh.

Speaking of birds with honors <and … no … I am not speaking of giving the honorable proverbial ‘bird’ to someone> … what’s up with state birds?

Why the heck do we have state birds?

And its kind of screwed up because they aren’t even really state birds … because states actually share state birds.

<… heck … every state has an official state bird, state flower, state tree, state flower … bla bla bla … what the hell is the point of this? A state has a lot of different birds, trees, flowers so why pick one to be “official”? … oops … sorry … I digressed …>

Anyway.

Apparently the cardinal is the most popular bird. It is the official state bird in 7 states <Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia … I think> followed by the western meadowlark in 6 states and the mockingbird in 5 states. This also makes me ponder the thought that if say maybe the cardinal reached a majority of states as a state bird … would it then be voting out the bald eagle and become the national bird?